Complexity of Destiny
by Hyuchiha Ruki
Summary: He wishes he did not serve her so diligently. He wishes that destiny did not decide to bring them together. He wishes he could go back to Yuuko and tell her that he still wants to be her slave, her servant... her houseboy... her Watanuki. WataYuuko


**Guess what my latest LSS is!**

**Kankuro: No one answer her lest you die in my wrath!**

**Me: Of course no one will answer! –rolls eyes-**

**Kankuro: -in falsetto- Of course no one will answer. –clicks tongue- Whatever, Ruki.**

**Me: My new LSS is 'Heaven Knows' by Rick Price!**

**Kankuro: -groan- I should've known, darn it.**

**Me: And it inspired me to—!**

**Kankuro: Oh, gawd, no!**

**Me: Write a YuukoWata one-shot!**

**Kankuro: Grarrgh!**

**Disclaimer: I don't own xxxHOLiC.**

**Note: This is not a song fic. Just a drabble, I guess. And both the flashbacks and thoughts are in italics. Only, the thoughts have '' caging them and flashback portions have two dashes before them. Read carefully. :) Thank you.**

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_--"Watanuki, your debt is paid."_

Autumn was taking its toll on everyone. The streets drowned in golden leaves, brittle as a heart. A chill spread in the air, sending ice down everyone's spines, filling cheeks with its pale disposition. Autumn gave the saddest yet somehow comforting ambiences of all the seasons.

Unlike the calm spring, it terrifies. Unlike the joyous summer, the cold brings you down. But unlike the winter, it is not a monster. Autumn, indeed, was misunderstood.

But it wasn't the climate that Watanuki Kimihiro was thinking of.

--_He blinked back at her. Her eyes have never been so serious. Yet, come to think of it, her eyes were never serious. Where was the mischief and imp in her soul? Where was it? Watanuki found himself searching for Yuuko inside rather than trying to comprehend what his employer was saying._

"_What?"_

It was what had just passed her by: days, months… more than a year… eternity seemed to be with them, even… Yuuko… She was missing.

No, he _missed _her.

In their last conversation, he couldn't understand. There was a part in him, a caramel eye which was a remembrance of an arachnidan memoir he wished to forget, that rejoiced that his seemingly infinite debt to the Dimension Witch has been paid. Predictably, though, his blue eye quivered and was torn apart.

Whatever was true was grieving. Ultimately.

--_Yuuko leaned back on her chair, a long and rather monotonous frown crossing the borders of her jaw. "I am sure that you heard me, Watanuki," she mumbled, snapping her fingers in definition, "You are free to go. You may leave me now… forever. I have no more need for you."_

_The red liquid that circled in her goblet seemed to lure him. He had always served her the wine. He had for so long. He never even got a decent chance to do it one last time. "Why?" was his question. _

All those magical, mysterious, even screwed up and mellow moments with Yuuko have earned a place in his memory and his soft spot. He had always complained silently about how he could end up as Yuuko's slave for his whole lifetime, but his 'freedom' probably came a day too soon. Any day would be too early. Forever did not sound so long anymore.

The buzz of school still reechoed in his ears, but her voice haunted him like a ghost who refused to rest. Oddly, Watanuki was glad that her voice lingered. It brought sympathy to him. But with the ringing of Yuuko's giggles and murmurs, his own voice, in his mind, replied.

'_How are you Watanuki?' _The voice seemed to ask him how he feels. She had no right to. She had caused him most of his grief. He was sure it wasn't Yuuko communicating to him with whatever spell she could muster. In exchange for the service, Watanuki knew, Yuuko would grant him to never have anything to do with the supernatural, unknown and unseen ever again.

Something tugged at him. He wished he had never made that wish.

Still, he wished to answer to 'Yuuko' without a frank tone. '_Fine. Very. Thank you.' _Watanuki bit his lip irritably. He would be the biggest liar he'd ever know if he were to also lie to himself. The truth bled through, though_._

_--"You've served me diligently," she honestly told him, dropping her gaze in what appeared to be shame, "I made an agreement with you. I grant your wish, pay me through service and go free once I find your service satisfactory otherwise." She smiled technically. "Thank you, Watanuki."_

As Watanuki cringed his nose, Yuuko's verbal hallucination returned to him. '_You look troubled, Watanuki.' _The mellow tone soothed him, '_What is the matter? Is it because I let you free?' _The statement was followed by an amused laugh, catching Watanuki off-guard. '_I thought you hated being my servant.'_

'_Gawd, I do.' _Watanuki admitted to the voice, casually talking to it like how he'd talk to Yuuko, _'I just didn't think things would end so quickly.' _He wiped his nose, stopping a run. _'Do you know how that feels, Yuuko-san?'_

Once again, Yuuko's soft, lovely song of happiness strangled him with a burning sense. It brought blunt drops to Watanuki's eyes, like onions. A layered kind of mirth, of a cat's, that was her giggle. And he loved it that way. Only now did he fully realize that Yuuko's laugh is the one thing he misses the most about her.

'_I forever will know that feeling, My Watanuki,' _the reply came, '_As long as you are never to return to me, I will always feel the loneliness, the aghast ions in your gut and the empty hole lined with nostalgia in your heart.' _A gentle caress ran through Watanuki. '_I forever will miss you, Watanuki.' _But her words didn't weep. They danced before him, still immature and carefree. Just like the Yuuko he knows.

But then, 'Yuuko's' voice added, _'But, as long as my little girls and Mokona are here, I shall be fine.' _Watanuki didn't hesitate in slouching forward at this. He knew there was something coming that would break the mood. Still, he was sure that _he _would not be fine again.

To Watanuki, this walk home seemed to take forever. The streets don't seem to end. He figures that when you're talking to yourself, pretending the other voice in your head is your ex-employer, things last longer, dripping the clocks all around. This was the last time Watanuki would pretend to be talking to Yuuko-san, no matter how much he missed her.

--_The chant of the girls was noise. Watanuki felt his heart sink, gobbled up in his gut. This couldn't be happening. After all the time, the adventures, the craziness, the mishaps, the magic… the blossoming of love… It couldn't end so quickly. It shouldn't._

"_I… I don't mind working for a few more days, Yuuko-san." Watanuki said, offering more than his debt. It was unlike him to do so. He usually preferred to be what people called a 'Free Man'. When he could finally go back, be a regular student, never see a freak ghost again, continue to be Doumeki's natural enemy and court Himawari all he wants, he wanted to stay the same and have anything to do with Yuuko._

_He still wanted to serve Yuuko. And it wasn't because she paid him. She didn't, after all._

The voice never came back, but the snug breath that swirled around Watanuki stayed. He didn't mind, not at all. It even felt like the same satin, silk and cotton that Yuuko-san always wore. And it bring placate and comfort like no other to him. Still, the line of her skin was foreign, a stranger he was yet to anticipate.

And, like every day, Watanuki was nearing the location of Yuuko's shop. The trees lathered in pink petals surrounding the area were coming in view. But, then, Watanuki's steps halted. The shift of his soles paused. He held his breath, as if he had stopped with time. It only brought intrigue, shock and despair to him.

The shop, Yuuko's shop, was gone.

'_Where's the shop?!' _he thought in a thick of panic.

--_"A deal is a deal, Watanuki," Yuuko said, shaking her head with her flowing locks, "It'd be a great dishonor to break a pledge. When I say you can leave," she swallowed hard before turning away, finishing her sentence, "you _will _leave."_

_With that, she pushed herself from her seat and briskly walked out of the place, leaving him on the center of the eight-mat teal floor. All Watanuki could do now was the only option he ever had: Leave._

Yesterday, when Watanuki was sent off after paying his debt, the shop was still there, definitely. But, now, all he stared back at were various square feet of vacant, barren soil. No concrete, no evidence of the shop, nothing. It was as if the shop had disappeared just like how he had disappeared from the shop.

'_It is gone, as you see, Watanuki,' _the voice was talking to him again, as if it had a good explanation, _'Fate says that its role here in your dimension, in your world, is finally over, as how your role as My Watanuki is over.' _Watanuki swears he felt a frosty yet plump kiss plant onto his cheek, subtle as the autumn wind that cowered over him. _'My role in your life, Watanuki, is also over.'_

And there, only now could Watanuki confirm that it was truly Yuuko, talking to him through his mind.

'_I promised to never let you deal with the supernatural ever again,' _Yuuko spoke, whispering with the winter's croon as Watanuki clutched the latchet of his bag yet again, only this time, his pain appeared in the deep pierces that popped onto the leather, _'But I just came by, talking to you through your mind to say a proper goodbye. I never got to get the privilege yesterday.'_

Watanuki's throat closed in at him. "Yuuko-san." It was all his lips could congregate into his breath.

'_You be good.' _She advised, chuckling right after, knowing she was treating him like a little boy, like always. _'Don't forget me.' _With those words, the presence faded. Her voice became less than a murmur, less than a gasp. Her touch had disappeared. The illusion, finally, was gone.

Searching for the shivering air that represented Yuuko, he heaved quick sighs that brought him apart. "Yuuko-san, wait!" Watanuki called out, knowing there would be no reply, "Yuuko-san, you can't just leave me again, damn you!" He turned to every direction of the sidewalk. At the bare lot, at the deserted street, at the silent sidewalk and at the towering trees, there was no more Yuuko.

Watanuki grunted, coughing out the choke of the void. Her name was his drone, a symphony of an embrace. "Don't leave me alone…

… Not again."

Destiny has brought them together. And should all know that nay was destiny the one that _kept _them together.

Destiny, remembered to be the one who had torn them apart.

What fate writes will remain past the end of time. Watanuki found out the hard way.


End file.
